Contentment

[Joshua Smith]

My problem with that is what is the rationale for such usage? People used to leave off all caps (thanks to ee cummings) even though there was no true rationale to do so, except they may have thought it looked more poetic which is not an adequate rationale. This goes to poetic integrity and just because a lot people do it, does not justify doing so (they also used to center justify, the only valid reason for that is concrete poetry where one is trying to create an image). As the point of poetry to present the truth in all its multifaceted ways, I cannot personally justify using affected typesetting that only serves to obscure that communication. Of course there are many who would argue that idea. 

best,

dale

You would have to ask them about their rationale.  I am not one that should presume the rationale of others, but I do presume that a significant amount, if not a majority, do it with intention.  As for me, I probably tend to use every line capitalization more often than not.  My rationale tends to vary depending on which piece it is applied to.  For "Contentment" I am trying to emphasize the individual lines within the piece.  Line capitalization, seems to me, to help readers focus on the line itself. End stopping the lines also seems to aid in that focus.  Originally, I had punctuation at the end of every line.  I have had several remarks about the excessive punctuation so I have removed a few marks, but the majority still have something.  Possibly that is something I should not have changed.  Any rational look at all of humanity or the entire world must acknowledge the depravity, despair, corruption, and degradation.  So how can their be contentment among such contemptible attributes?  I believe that if we try to focus on the beauty, kindness, love, and compassion that exists in the small everyday instances most of us encounter then we can take one more step towards genuine contentment.  The narrator obviously does not do this, but in the lines in which N describes the environment N could have talked about the green rolling hills instead of being bound to the ground, or the beautifully eerie trees of the bog instead of just calling it vile.  The lines by themselves even outside of the whole sentence hopefully have meaning and impact. But, is that not a major difference between poetry and prose?  By utilizing a capital letter at the beginning of every line I am saying, "Here is a new line, a line of opportunity, the opportunity to find beauty or dismiss beauty".  The Narrator chooses to dismiss, and that is what makes it a fun piece for me; the threshing out of the consequences of discontentment, albeit extreme discontentment.


Thank you for the questions.  It is very enjoyable to discuss such matters.